Lesbian Gay Film Festival Hamburg - International Queer Film Festival
The Lesbian and Gay Film Days Hamburg | International Queer Film Festival are the oldest and largest film festivals in Germany that unite lesbian and gay film culture in one event. It is also, according to the Hamburg Film Festival , the second largest hamburger Film Festival.
background
The festival emerged from an autonomous seminar at the University of Hamburg in the winter semester 1989/90 and took place for the first time in June 1990 in Hamburg's Metropolis Kino . Since 1995 it has been held annually in the third week in October. Over a period of six days, around 55 screenings over 100 short and feature films will be shown. Every year, numerous filmmakers from Germany, Europe and overseas come to Hamburg for the film days. Around 10,000 visitors come to the screenings, and with all the supporting events, the film days now have around 15,000 visitors a year.
In 2009 the name "Lesbian Schwule Filmtage Hamburg" was supplemented by the English-language addition "International Queer Film Festival" after intensive discussions. This was justified both with the international orientation of the festival, which should become more apparent, and with the fact that the festival name already covers the entire thematic spectrum of the festival (lesbian, gay, transgender, intersex, queer and other topics related to gender and sexuality and Society) should reflect.
The Lesbian and Gay Film Days Hamburg | International Queer Film Festival are hosted and organized by a largely voluntary festival team. Numerous helpers support the festival. There is no festival director or program director. Since autumn 2009 there has also been a paid position (32 hours per week), which includes the coordination of fundraising and sponsoring as well as administrative parts.
The film days are financed through the income from ticket sales, through funding from the cultural authority of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, and through donations and sponsorship money.
Competitions and Prizes
The festival currently has five competitions in which seven prizes are awarded. Most of them are decided by the festival audience by voting card:
- URSULA has existed since 1997 for the best gay or lesbian short film in the program. URSULA originally stood as an acronym for “Our most delightful gay and lesbian amateur film”, as initially only amateur films were shown. This international short film competition is now endowed with prize money of 1,000 euros each in the categories gay, lesbian and transgender (2005–2009). In 2010, the transgender category was added to the new URSULA gender bender category. This takes into account the fact that not only pure transgender short films, but also films such. B. be integrated into this competition on the topic of intersexuality.
- From 1998 to 2008 the EUROLA was awarded for the most popular European feature film in the program. In 2009 EUROLA was incorporated into the GLOBOLA.
- From 2003 to 2008, GLOBOLA went to the most popular international feature film in the program. Since 2009 it has been the prize for the most popular feature film (endowed with 1,000 euros, donated by Hamburg Pride eV).
- The DOKULA has been a prize for the best long documentary film since 2008. The prize money of 1,000 euros was donated from 2008 to 2012 by the gay-web eV association .
The prizes each consist of a small statuette that was designed by the Berlin artist Birgit Neppl until 2003. Since 2004 they have been designed by the Hamburg designer Jule K. A framed portrait photo of the statuette is awarded with a plaque on which the year of the award, the festival name and the award winner (film and director) are engraved.
- Since 2006 there has been a competition for young national queer filmmakers: "Made in Germany". It replaces the “Made in Hamburg” competition, which first took place in 2005. A film-related material prize is awarded to the winner; since 2008 this has been a distribution agreement with a DVD publisher.
- A jury prize has been awarded since the anniversary year 2009. A three-person international jury made up of film experts will decide which of the around a dozen festival entries nominated by the team will receive 5,000 euros in prize money. This makes the jury award of the Lesbian and Gay Film Days Hamburg the best endowed queer film award in Germany. First winner of the jury award of the Lesbian and Gay Film Days Hamburg | International Queer Film Festival was the Canadian director John Greyson . He received an award for his film Fig Trees .
literature
- Dorothée von Diepenbroick, Skadi Loist (Ed.): Beautiful. 20 years of the Lesbian and Gay Film Festival Hamburg . Männerschwarmverlag, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-939542-74-2 .